Paterson: ‘People Are Going to Remember Who Stood Up’ to This Deficit

“People have got to get real serious at how serious this financial crisis is,” he said on WBEN in Buffalo. He reiterated his belief that a deficit reduction plan passed earlier this week does not go far enough–he acquiesced to the plan–and when asked about what would happen going forward.

“If we maintain ourselves, if we don’t have a downgraded credit rating, if we don’t pretend that there isn’t a crisis when there is one–I would think that the economy will pick up by the middle of next year–then we’ll actually get out of this mess,” Paterson said. “But if we continue to have the Legislature come back and continue to offer a deficit reduction plan that doesn’t come within $1 billion of what the comptroller says we need, people are going to remember who stood up and addressed the crisis and who buried their heads in the sand and pretended that it didn’t exist.”